Rainbow at VijayalokaBodhipaksa is teaching in Australia in 2017! He’s been invited by the Sydney Buddhist Centre to lead a week-long retreat on lovingkindness and the other three “divine abidings” at Vijayaloka Buddhist Retreat Centre, at Minto, just one hour from the centre of Sydney, on a plot of largely pristine bushland above the upper reaches of the Georges River.

This week-long retreat is an opportunity to enjoy my innovative and even provocative take on the “divine abidings” or Brahma Viharas — four inspiring and transformative practices that progressively expand our sphere of concern to include all beings.

The divine abidings are a path to insight, blending compassion and wisdom.

Most us us have the habit of being hard on ourselves. We talk unkindly to ourselves and often we sacrifice our own well-being in order to “get things done.” We blame ourselves when things go wrong, and often fear that if we stop doing so we’ll cease to perform well.

On this weekend retreat, Bodhipaksa will introduce a step-by-step guide to self-compassion, so that we can learn to be more gentle with and understanding of ourselves.

It’s only the second time I have ever been on a retreat and the last time three years ago I made a bit of a fool of myself (read more here for the full, rather embarrassing story), although I still had a great time.

Even though I’d been meditating for 7 or 8 years I’d rarely sat for more than 30 minutes at a time and 20 minutes was probably a closer average before that retreat.

Zoe Schlanger, The Independent: It was 5:30 in the morning on my third day of silent meditation when I noticed something in me take a sharp turn left. I was groggy, frustrated by my inability to sit still and hungry for the breakfast that was still an hour off. I got up from the spot on the floor of my bedroom where I’d been attempting to meditate and walked outside, to the new-growth woods behind the residential quarters at the Vipassana Meditation Centre in Shelburne, Massachusetts. It was springtime, and the outdoors seemed spring-loaded with potential: the buds on the trees were sharp little things …

Florence Waters, The Telegraph: A week without noise in Ibiza proves a meditation revelation for Florence Waters.

I remember the first time a friend confessed he was going on a silent meditation retreat: no talking, Wi-Fi, books, phones or pens for what sounded like a very long week.

Though a little curious, I was embarrassed enough to change the subject immediately. Perhaps this is how people felt in the Nineties when someone disclosed they were having therapy. But when I saw him afterwards he was clearly moved by the experience; “I can’t really explain, you’ve just got to do it,” he ventured. “I …

Bodhipaksa is leading a retreat about the path to insight at the Vimaladhatu Meditation House, Germany, from Saturday, August 1st thru Saturday, August 8, 2015.

The Buddha’s teachings offer a pathway to inner peace, freedom, and compassion. But we can only go so far on this path unless we challenge our deeply held assumptions of our own permanence and separateness. Through understanding the eternally changing nature of our being, we can let go of self-grasping and awaken to a natural, spontaneous joy and freedom.

The retreat will be led in English. For those who wish, simultaneous translation into German will be available using headphones.

Enjoy Bodhipaksa’s unique take on the “divine abidings” — four inspiring and transformative practices that progressively expand our sphere of concern to include all beings. In cultivating kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), joyful appreciation (mudita), and loving with wisdom (upekkha), we develop an unselfish concern as deep as the world itself: a love that leads, ultimately, to awakening.

This retreat is being held at the beautiful Dhanakosa Retreat Center, Balquhidder, Lochearnhead, Scotland, 24 Jul to 31 Jul 2015.